"Absolutely not." Amira stated matter-of-factly, grabbing one of his hands again, this time to pull him along. "You're going to try. This is the first time I've had an actual meal available to eat in…I think it's been about five months now, though I wouldn't really call that a meal, mostly just a lot of potatoes. What about some bread if you can't stomach much else? Bread is good for that kind of thing because it's lighter but still substance, and not too much extra flavor if you're getting more Westernized bread, or just specific types of bread. My people loved adding flavor to bread, but we've got a few more plain breads for people who can't handle the spices and whatnot." She talked like her brain moved too fast for her mouth to keep up, almost but not quite stumbling over her words and incredibly rapid paced. And the topic shifts followed easily, like she didn't even stop to consider that most people stuck to one topic instead of that many.
He looked a little confused as she dragged him along, shaking his head. “I’ll be fine. Ear as much as you’d like but I’m alright.” He murmured again, letting her speak her quick-paced mind.
And yet Nordali didn’t pull against her. Usually he wasn’t one for touching - even being as touch starved as he was - but this woman seemed so trusting. “I don’t need food.”
"Don't need food." Amira grumbled to herself, rolling her eyes. "Trust me, food is important. Go a week without more than a loaf of stale bread, and you'll be eating as much as you can. Are you a fan of spicy foods? I couldn't find anyone making kabsa, but Chavvi was making curry, and it smelled divine." She'd been talking with the guild members, it seemed, bonding and getting to know at least a few of them.
He scoffed gently. “I have. I’m an outcast too. First few weeks of being out on my own I couldn’t feed myself. Quite awful when you realized you were a privileged pig too.” He said rather bitterly, sighing deeply.
“I love spicy foods.” He replied, giving her a half-hearted smile. “Chavvi’s curry is the best around. No one makes it better.”
"Good thing I had experience with that already then." She said offhandedly, a concerning comment but one she didn't even seem to notice she had said. "It is? That's even better then. I was fully prepared to eat it even if it smelled better than it tasted, but I really was hoping for good curry. I wonder if she's got any pita bread."
“We have a small amount of pita bread if you’d like some.” He replied, concern having flashed over his face for her previous words. But he didn’t remark or expound on them, instead letting her keep her words uncommented on. “It may be a little stale. Bread is hard to keep fresh when it only arrives in our guild every so often.” He explained. He walked in silence for a little longer before something flashed in his eyes. “Ah. I’ve been meaning to ask you,” he started, pulling the vial of the golden substance from the depths of his jacket. “What, pray tell, is this?”
"Do you never make the bread? Dharia, the head cook in the kitchens, used to let me help make things. Making pita bread was probably one of my favorite ones." For a moment, a wistful look passed over Amira's face, as though she was a million miles away some place, back in the hot palace kitchens bustling with life and a flurry of activity. Then he was asking another question, and she blinked out of her thoughts. "Oh, that? Figured you could use it. It's an….explosive particle, I guess. I'll teach you how to use it at some point, show you, but usually you light a match to a little bit of the powder stuff, and boom. A little bit goes a long way though, so heads up."
“Carrying around the ingredients is… not preferable.” He murmured, shaking his head. “Not to mention hard to come by. We don’t steal from the poor. We don’t steal from the good. It’s the rich and wicked we target. They never seem to have enough of what we would need.” He explained, his eyes traveling over her face as she left to some distant memory.
“Explosive?” He looked down at it again before carefully returning it to the depths of his jacket. “Ah. Then it would be advised to keep it safe?” He asked in amusement, lifting a hand to hold his head for a moment. He was a little more drunken than he would have liked.
"Maybe." Amira teased, tilting her head back to look up at him. Her dark eyes twinkled with mirth, making it obvious she was amused. "Or, you could always go way out and blow up half a mountain. How much did you have to drink tonight?" And that was where something else entered her eyes. Just for a moment, a flicker of something echoed in her voice. Something like wariness, and she almost seemed to shift just a half step away from him as she released his hand now that she was sure he would keep up. Please say just a bit. A glass. Maybe he's just a light weight.
There was a crawling feeling in her gut, and it took everything she had to keep her breathing steady.
He laughed, grinning brightly. He was just about to answer when her next question hit him. His expression and mood immediately soured. “Most of a bottle.” Came the curt reply, something like guilt flashing in his eyes. “I didn’t mean to drink so much. Usually I’m much better at keeping myself sober.” He replied, trying to protect his pride.
“I was never allowed to drink for a large portion of my life. Now that I can I slightly abuse it.”
"Most of a bottle."
"Uh huh." Amira hummed, the sound almost curt as she shoved her hands into her pockets. Her shoulders were hunched, which was odd, considering she usually walked with her shoulders back and chin high. Like she was shrinking in on herself all of a sudden. Normally talkative, she was suddenly quiet, eyes fixed ahead of her and down, and her face returning to that closed off look from earlier. Breathe. It's easy. In and out. You've been doing it forever. He's not going to do anything. Not everyone-you can defend yourself anyway, at least long enough to get away. Just breathe.
He looked to her and slid away, sensing something was off. “I’m sorry. I won’t do anything. Alcohol doesn’t make me strange or more confident or anything like it does to others. It knocks me out cold if I drink too much and only gives me a buzz if I drink too little. I have no middle area where I’m wild. It’s either a buzz, or I’m out. I blame the genetics of my race. We have specially made alcohol for our bodies.” He breathed out softly. “I will not touch you if you do not wish me too. You have my word.”
Her steps faltered as he slid away, mind immediately going to the worst possible outcome. And then he was speaking, and she was stopping completely. He was promising not to touch her. He was explaining the effects of alcohol on his body. Each thing something nobody had ever bothered to do for her, and she wasn’t quite sure how to take that. “I-I appreciate that.” She said, cursing her voice for shaking slightly. Even if promises could be easily broken, it meant something to her.
Nordali watched her expressions, only gesturing for her to continue when he was sure she was a little more calmed. “Let’s go eat. I’ll try some. It’s better than nothing in my system.” He lazily waved his arms about, trying to make it dramatic to pick up her mood. “But you know me, stubborn as always.”
Amira relaxed slightly as he changed the subject, glad for it. She nodded once, starting off again, though still at a distance from Zar. “It is better than nothing. And I’m starting to see that stubbornness.” Her last words almost had a teasing undertone, and she glanced back at him to shoot him a small smirk.
His lips twitched in an amused smile but it didn’t seem to reach his dull eyes. “Soooo, you have a taste for spice, right?” He raised an eyebrow. “I know where we could steal a few peppers from around the world.”
“Varying places, or varying peppers in one place?” She asked, raising an eyebrow back at him. Her hair was falling back into her face, her curls somehow even more curly now than they had been just a few minutes ago.
“Peppers from varying places. There’s one stand. It sells peppers from around the kingdoms. Thought you’d be interested in looking. The man there is easy to swindle. A rich old vendor who takes up brothels in his spare time.” A sudden look of distaste befell his features. “Dirty old man.”
Amira's eyes lit up as he talked about the peppers, the shadows clinging to them fading quickly with her smile. Though, the innocence and excitement in that smile faded somewhat at the mention of the brothels, becoming almost more scheming. Definitely more scheming. "Brothels, you say? Hm…"
“Yes, brothels.” He waved his hand at the mention of it, almost as if denouncing they existed. “The women and men there like what they’re doing so I can’t complain.” His eyes narrowed slightly, studying her face.
“Hold up, what are you planning?”
"Oh, that's beside the point." She said, waving her own hand in a dismissive motion. Her eyes were sort of far away though, twinkling. A scheming face, the corner of her mouth tugging up into a small smirk as she raised the eyebrow on the opposite side.
Nordali huffed, fixing his jacket and smoothing it out against his lean body. “Now that’s no fair. I want in on whatever mischief you’re planning.” His eyes drifted forwards, where a small group of his guild were sitting around a large pot that hung over the fire. The smell of fresh curry and spices drifted towards them. Nordali’s stomach lurched with hunger.
“Ah shit. Didn’t realize how hungry I actually was.” He mumbled, more to himself than the girl next to him.
"Oh no, you really don't want in on this scheme. Trust me." Amira said, flashing him a full smirk. Her attention shifted completely as soon as she smelled the food, that bounce and glow returning to her step and face. "It's easier to forget after a while. Hurry up, slowpoke!" She called over her shoulder, taking off at a jog and then a sprint, her hair coming fully loose from the ribbon keeping it back.
He flashed her a pout but that was quickly replaced by a grin as she challenged him. “Oh, you’re competitive.” He purred, whistling for Rolif, who came right away, letting Nordali up onto his back right away. He waved at her once they had caught up, grinning. “Slowpoke.”
"You dirty cheater." She accused, narrowing her eyes playfully at him as she picked up the pace. A wicked look sparked on her face as an idea came to mind, and she reached into her pocket quickly, pulling something out with the quickness of someone well practiced. "Two can play at that game, hallaski." She lifted her hand, and the glint of something powdery on her fingers caught the light as she blew a kiss. Whatever had been on her hands billowed out in a cloud headed straight for Zar and his stag, clouding the air around them.
He gasped dramatically. “I’m not cheating if there were no rules.” He purred wickedly, watching her with narrowed eyes as she schemed. He was just about to speak when the powder was blown at them, and Rolif was suddenly rearing back, snorting as the powder clouded his senses.
Nordali steered Rolif out of the cloud and cast a playful glare in Amira’s direction. “Now that was cheating he called back, reaching the fire pit just after she did.
"I've never won anything in life fairly. Cheating is the best and most sure way straight to the top." Amira said simply and surely, her accent thick as she placed her hands on her knees, bending over to catch her breath quickly. "Don't worry about the powder, anyway. It's just ground dried fern. Good for rashes."
“I wasn’t too worried. Rolif, on the other hand, seems to be a little more angry.” Indeed the stag was still shaking his head and blowing air out of his nose angrily in the direction of Amira. Nordali chuckled and slid off the back of the animal, walking to her and offering a hand. “You seem a little out of breath, dear.” He chuckled lightly, mischief in his eyes. “I may have lost the race but at least I can still breath.”
"Until I see you sprinting at full speed to out run a stag, I don't want to hear it." She huffed at him, accepting his hand with only a moment of hesitation. Once she'd caught her breath, she reached into her belt pockets again, this time searching around a bit more. "Does he eat sugar cubes? I would like to apologize for using him to make you lose."
He laughed, his voice melodic in the action. “I guess that would make it hard, now wouldn’t it?” He smiled softly at her.
Rolif perked up as Nordali called him closer, placing a hand on the Stag’s nose. “He loves them.” He replied softly. “He thinks he’s a horse, some noble steed of the highest breed.” He mused, pressing his forehead against Rolif’s neck. He breathed in the musky smell of his animal companion and smiled softly. “He’s a good companion and an even better friend.”
